Republican Representative Louie Gohmert has never achieved the celebrity dunkable status of a Matt Gaetz or a Jim Jordan or even a Steve King, but not for lack of trying. He was part of the Tea Party wave into Congress during the Obama era, and the things he said were harebrained enough to inspire Mother Jones to place him on a 2009 list entitled “Capital Hill’s Most Unhinged Republicans.” But on Tuesday he suddenly went viral — not for something he said, but because it looked like one of his teeth fell out of his mouth while he was talking at a press conference.
The Texas representative was coming out hard against one of the major issues gripping America right now. No, not COVID-19. No, not outgoing president Donald Trump’s increasingly laughable attempts to overturn the election. No, not even about how much Piers Morgan looks like Brenda Fricker’s homeless woman in Home Alone 2. It was about…renaming military bases that were named after Confederate leaders? That’s still a thing, apparently! And as if to show that the GOP is literally falling apart, as he spoke he had to pause while a tooth-like object rattled in his mouth.
Rep. Louie Gohmert’s (R-TX) gum keeps getting in the way of his address. pic.twitter.com/fTC3lHvayb
— The Recount (@therecount) December 8, 2020
The above clip is normal speed, but here’s one slowed down and zoomed-in.
Rep. Louie Gohmert’s tooth just fell out at his press conference. pic.twitter.com/ieeEeBtcXp
— The Recount (@therecount) December 8, 2020
Gohmert later confirmed that it wasn’t a tooth. It was a temporary crown that had come loose. He then somehow managed to tie it into Hunter Biden’s laptop and (baseless accusations of) voter fraud, chastising reporters for being uninterested in a politician who isn’t very famous and is speaking about a subject people cared about over the summer.
Reporters are already more interested in covering the fact that my temporary crown came loose during today’s press conference than they ever were in reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop or the rampant election fraud in the 2020 race. Excellent priorities, as always. #Crowngate
— Louie Gohmert (@replouiegohmert) December 8, 2020
Gohmert also tried to create a hashtag around “#Crowngate,” a quick search on Twitter shows it never exactly took off.
In fact, if you known Louie Gohmert’s name in 2020, it’s probably because he was one of many Republican politicians who tested positive for COVID-19, after being mask skeptics who played down the severity of a pandemic that’s currently spiking in places that voted for Trump’s failed re-election. One doctor speculated that teeth falling may be a long-term symptom of having had COVID-19; after all, we’re only now starting to see the grim side effects of surviving the disease.
TOOTH LOSS is one symptom of #LongCovid. Congressman Louie Gohmert’s tooth just came out during a speech. He had #COVID19 many months ago. Many reports of COVID-related tooth lose in NYT, as well as documented by @Survivor_Corps @dianaberrent. pic.twitter.com/RLsuHeJQhI
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) December 8, 2020
Still, a New York Times piece says the jury’s still out on that one. Perhaps Republicans simply need better health care, to hook them up with better dentists. Maybe some kind of “Medicare for All” would be a good way to stop people from having teeth fall out while they’re speaking on camera?
(Via Mashable)